PEKIN — Christopher List of Washington dabbed away tears Monday as a prosecutor described how he took the sight from one of his infant daughter's eyes by shaking and throwing her.

"Do you still want to plead guilty?" a judge asked after hearing the story.

"Yes, sir," he replied, barely above a whisper.

List, 34, of 205 S. Elm St., will learn March 20 how long — up to 15 years — he will serve in prison for shaking his 3-month-old daughter and throwing her down hard enough to bounce her off a bed.

He pleaded guilty to aggravated battery to a child, a Class X felony, in a partial agreement in which a Tazewell County prosecutor agreed not to seek more than half of the crime's maximum punishment. List will be required to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence that Circuit Judge Michael Brandt will impose.

Assistant State's Attorney Larry Evans said trial testimony would reveal that, after the infant was taken to a Peoria hospital with fresh injuries on Aug. 18, 2012, List told police his baby had rolled off of a bed while he was getting a pacifier for her. Told that she had suffered bleeding in the brain and other injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome, he changed his story.

"He said he had been very angry and frustrated," said Evans. List grabbed his baby and "shook her violently" and then threw her onto the bed, he said.

The infant suffered retinal hemorrhaging that has left her "permanently blind in one eye," Evans said.

Prosecution of the case had slowed by the issue of whether List was mentally capable to aid in his own defense and stand trial. Last April, a court-ordered mental evaluation determined he was not capable at that time but stood a strong probability of becoming fit with treatment.

His attorney did not seek to challenge a psychiatrist's report last November that List was mentally fit for prosecution.

Defense attorney Charles Schirer replied, "Absolutely," when Brandt asked Monday if List was "mentally fit to plead guilty." At that reply, an unidentified woman in the courtroom uttered, "Oh! You've got to be kidding me," and quickly walked out.